Monday, April 11, 2011

Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

(draft)

I bought Veganomicon, not because I'm going to become a vegan, or even a vegetarian, but because I want to make more vegetable based meals. Expand my repertoire. Get healthier. The book is lovely to look at, dark turquoise green and paler green olive text on a roughish paper. It sits open by itself, very useful when cooking. And the writing is engaging.

The authors, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, although they've both written several other cookbooks, are obviously home cooks. I like this. They know about taking food to picnics and barbecues, about entertaining at home, about cooking for yourself and maybe one other person. They know about which foods are probably available in your local supermarket and which things you'll most likely have to go to a specialist supplier to buy.

I'm fascinated by the culture portrayed through the recipes: New York, Brooklyn, Mexican, Greek, Jewish food is put through a vegan filter, and comes out in sometimes surprising combinations. And I wonder if in Australia where we've been influenced by Greek, Arabic, Italian, and South-East Asian foods and ways of cooking we do the same thing.